Commentary on political happenings around the nation and locally in Milwaukee, WI.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Bay View Beating in Broad Daylight

For all of the hype that took place on the right side of the Wisconsin blogosphere after the beating of a young boy in broad daylight a couple weeks ago, there is remarkable silence about a similar beating that took place this past weekend.

In the community of Bay View on Saturday, a 72-year old woman was beaten by a man in the middle of the afternoon. According to a report by WISN news:

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"The woman was walking with a bag of groceries to a nearby bus stop when she noticed a man following behind her," Reed reported.

She crossed the street to get away, but, police said, the man followed, knocked her to the ground and started beating her repeatedly.

"She was just crying. She was just looking around for someone to come help her," Neu said.

Several cars drove by before Neu saw the woman lying on the ground and pulled over.

"She was pretty beaten up. Blood was coming from her nose, and her eye was all swollen and pretty shaken up," Neu said. "She couldn't talk because she was trying to put her teeth back in."

Police said the suspect did not take the woman's purse, just a bag of groceries.

Neu said she is not sure which is worse, the fact the woman was beaten or that she was the only one to stop and help.

"Two cars went right through the stop sign, and one turned the other way. No one was stopping," Neu said.

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After the boy was beaten in broad daylight a couple weeks ago, the conservative blogger Cantankerous at "Ask Me Later" questioned: "How does something like this happen at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? Is it reasonable to believe that not a single soul was around the intersection of 1st and Center St. when this crime occurred? Is it reasonable to think that nobody, anywhere could have done something to help this kid?"

A host of conservative bloggers then started attacking a "Stop Snitching" campaign that they claim allowed the boy's beating to take place (see here and here). Others pointed to the culture of the community, explaining that it allowed the crime to take place (see here and here).

Since there is not a "Stop Snitching" campaign in Bay View nor is the community part of any "inner-city culture," what might be the reason an elderly woman was allowed to be not only beaten, but also left on the side of the road as people just drove by?